1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrooptical apparatus for manufacturing an electrooptical apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to an electrooptical apparatus designed to achieve improved liquid crystal display quality in an electrooptical apparatus.
2. Background Information
A liquid crystal apparatus is commonly formed by a process in which a lighting apparatus such as a backlight, and an auxiliary device such as an integrated circuit (IC) for driving liquid crystals are mounted on a liquid crystal display panel that is obtained by sealing a liquid crystal between two substrates.
A liquid crystal display panel is commonly formed by a method in which a first substrate provided with a first electrode, and a second substrate provided with a second electrode are laminated together by a seal that forms a gap formed between the first and second substrates. The gap formed between the first and second substrates is often called a cell gap. A liquid crystal is then injected through an injection port into the gap formed between the first and second substrates. A plug is used for closing the injection port after the liquid crystal has been injected. Thus, the liquid crystal is sealed in the cell gap by a commonly known injection method.
As used herein, the term “liquid crystal injection method” refers to a method in which a liquid crystal is injected by a pressure difference through a liquid crystal injection port under a vacuum, and the method for introducing the liquid crystal is as follows. First, a yet-unsealed liquid crystal display element (referred to hereinbelow as “a liquid crystal display cell”) is thoroughly degassed in a vacuum, and the injection port is sealed with a liquid crystal. The liquid crystal display cell thus obtained is returned to the atmosphere, and is then filled using surface tension and the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the liquid crystal display cell. For this reason, the process becomes extremely time-consuming as the liquid crystal display element increases in size. A resulting drawback is that the process lasts a day or longer for a large substrate measuring one meter or greater on a side, which is impractical from the manufacturing standpoint.
In view of this, it has been proposed in the past to forgo the injection of liquid crystals and to use an inkjet process. In this inkjet process, a droplet-ejecting head is used to eject a liquid crystal into the frame of a first substrate obtained by forming a frame-like seal, and then laminating a mating second substrate onto the first substrate, as disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication Nos. 05-281562, 10-221666 and 2001-183674.
The conventional inkjet processes described in these Patent Publications are disadvantageous, however, in that the liquid crystal is often contaminated with impurities and the liquid crystal display quality is compromised because of the contact between the liquid crystal and the uncured seal.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved electrooptical manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing an electrooptical apparatus. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.